10/23/07

Jinxie didn’t mean it. She was tricked, see. Yeah, she kinda loved him in a 48-hour leave kinda way. But that snapshot, she didn’t mean that. And here she is on page six, with a bunch of sheiks in khakis.

She had been looking behind the couch, out the window to the big lawn. Then she raised herself a little on the couch to see better. Then she slid back down and it uncovered a few inches of leg above the knee for a sixtieth of a second. Flashbulb. That's just a shirtwaist but now it looked like Esther Williams. She had meant to be friendly; to be the opposite of B-17 exhaust and the LOUDEST…POSSIBLE…NOISE; just not boredom, not smelling like fear. So these two Air Corps captains are playing the piano and singing their alma mater and some racier stuff. Mavis says she’s gotta go. She takes a little while to get out of there. Lipstick, flirting, a quarter glass of champagne, flirting. But she’s not making any time at all with these guys and beats it, asks us to watch her til she gets to her car, okay?

We can see ourselves reflected in the window and Mavis getting to the edge of the lawn, and then we can’t see her. Jinxie is watching, too. She looks scrumptious. We’re both smitten with her. Jinxie, we’re already nostalgic for her because we know we’re leaving at 22:00 hours. We can’t even tell her we’re leaving. Casino, air cover for II Corps, the 185th Armored and sundry.Get the Argus, settings, and as she’s turning back toward us smiling, flash.

They hand me a curled up photo of her on a couch. No problem. Mind if I add some leg? Oops, sorry, got some terps on there. Sure, give it the old college try, then.

They’re getting moved up to B-29s and they’re splurging on nose art. They told stories about her, which all sounded like bull, except that they were definitely in love with her. I could go for her myself.I’m in that picture with the flyboys with a big brush in my hand, faking the last dab. The sun is too bright and we’re squinting like Bogart but really happy.

They got shot down the far side of Frankfort. That was the only picture we had of them, so we gave it to Stars and Stripes.